Effect of Indian Ocean SST on Tibetan Plateau Precipitation in the Early Rainy Season

Abstract

The onset of the South Asian summer monsoon (SASM) indicates the beginning of the rainy season in the South Asia region. It is not only critical for the local agriculture and animal husbandry but also important for water and life security. Precipitation in the early rainy season (May) increases rapidly and has a large interannual variability, especially in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) region. One of the starting mechanisms of the monsoon system is the land–sea thermal contrast (LSTC) between the Indian Ocean (IO) and South Asia region. Therefore, the IO can be considered as a crucial factor for the intensity of the monsoon system, as well as the TP precipitation. In this study, the relationships between IO sea surface temperature (SST) and TP precipitation on the interannual time scale are investigated. Correlation maps show that IO SST variability contains a portion that is independent from the tropical Pacific Ocean SST and is negatively correlated with the TP precipitation. Here the authors define an LSTC index to determine the thermal condition over the IO and South Asia region. The SASM reveals an out-of-phase relationship with LSTC between land and ocean, which means it would be suppressed by the enhanced LSTC. The daily data are used to further analyze the relationship between the SASM and TP precipitation in detail. Results show that the anomalous TP precipitation in May is mainly caused by the Bay of Bengal monsoon and that the Indian monsoon is responsible for the TP precipitation in June. More specifically, warmer SST enlarges the LSTC between the IO and South Asia region. The SASM is weaker than the mean state, resulting in less precipitation over the TP. In negative years the opposite occurs.